Heather Broster
Christmas is just around the corner and that means it’s time to put up the tree, decorate the house, and most importantly, brush up on your Italian Christmas greetings! 😉 Perhaps you want to be able to say a few phrases when you call or write to your Italian relatives, or maybe you’re just curious …
When I moved to Italy to become an au pair in 2008, I decided that instead of flying from London to Turin, I’d take the train. Despite lasting nearly nine hours, the journey was fantastic thanks to the views of the French countryside and the Italian Alps, one of the most stunning mountain ranges I’ve …
False friends are words in different languages that sound or look the same but have completely different meanings. Although the vast majority of words that resemble each other in English and Italian do share a similar meaning due to their shared origin, there are a number of false friends that will certainly catch you out …
If you’ve just gorged yourself on ten chocolate bars or come down with a nasty stomach virus, you may be experiencing some serious mal di pancia which is the colloquial Italian word for upset stomach or stomach ache! Il bambino piangeva per il mal di pancia. The child was crying because of an upset stomach. …
A question that is rarely asked in real-world conversations, but almost always taught during the first lessons of any language course, is How old are you? or Quanti anni hai? in Italian. Quanti anni hai? – Ho tre anni e mezzo! How old are you? – I’m three and a half! It is important to …
Air – or aria (feminine, plural: arie) in Italian – is fundamental to all life on earth. Without air, or more specifically oxygen (ossigeno), the human body can only survive for a few minutes before it begins to fail. In addition to being the means by which winged animals and machines fly (volare), it is …